Musk already talked about the cold gas thrusters for the Tesla Roadster in 2018.
It would seem that your theory that the idea arose out of a need to distract from current financials doesn't hold merit.
He probably just wanted to design a cool car.
It would seem that your theory that the idea arose out of a need to distract from current financials doesn't hold merit.
He probably just wanted to design a cool car.
Clearly some time between 2018 and now he decided he'd have to actually have it done and ordered his people to make a stunt car with thrusters.
I disagree that it couldn’t come out of thinking of how to justify merging spacex and Tesla which he’s wanted to do for a long time.
This isn’t a cool car, it’s a gimmick. It will never be road-worthy, would lose money, and I doubt they’ll ever even sell it to customers.
As to why he’s going this dog and pony show now, we can only speculate, but I can’t think of any reasons that are good for Tesla (vs Musk personally) can you?
The obvious explanation would be that this design for the roadster took 8 years to come to fruition for a demo-able prototype.
I also very much doubt the 2028 timeline for delivery, and what the purpose of the Rocket edition is. Perhaps it's just a prestige project.
The non-flying version at least seems usable on a racing track.
I guess the answer is because it was Musk’s whim and nobody dared say no, which doesn’t bode well for Tesla.
And it can still be a distraction. The fact that they went through all this effort for a fantastically unreasonable thing just to wow for a company that is off the rails is...pretty telling. Have you never worked with someone who is late for everything, always overpromising and underdelivering, and as it becomes more apparently their promises get more exaggerated and unreasonable? That's Musk. Like "look you can play games on your screen", which absolutely no one asked for in a car, and for which it does much shittier than a $200 pad.
For that matter it's Trump too, and they're both cut from the same cloth -- don't like the dumb arch? Well now it has snipers and drones! And also it will eliminate the debt, deficit, income taxes, and...
So instead of just starting production of a vehicle 8 years behind schedule, look, new distraction! Amazeballs! Don't worry coming real soon now. Just put in those deposits!
I mean, the one part of this story that is unclear and no one seems to be asking hard questions is the compressor status -- there are vague, handwavy (oh we'll build a compressor claims, but I have huge doubts). A 5000 psi to 10000 psi compressor in the real world today is enormous. It's industrial equipment that generates enormous amounts of heat, is hilariously loud, and takes enormous power. While I am 100% certain this dog and pony show had their tanks filled by external massive compressors out of sight, I am pretty skeptical Tesla has any magic innovation in that field.
I also find it unconvincing that the purpose of the stunt is to receive deposits.
This being a prestige project to show off Tesla's advantage in experimental technology, or a personal pet project, would seem a much more likely explanation. Do we really need to bend everything into a malicious scam?
Hey remember when all of the Tesla factories were being retooled to make robots, and the hilarious robot demo where some remote controlled junk was pitched as next gen? Also SpaceX would be to Mars by 2021, and would have landed a crew there in 2023. Totes!
Musk is Elizabeth Holmes who lucked into buying a growing business. Like, he 100% does exactly what Theranos did, and which she is sitting in jail for, trying to boost the stock on bullshit and lies.
"prestige project to show off Tesla's advantage"
Advantage? The entire engineering world is going "why?", for a wide range of reasons.
Not unlike the CyberJunk nonsense where he needed to boast that it can stop bullets and double as a boat (https://nationalpost.com/news/world/cybertruck-texas-wade-mo...) and is made out of impractical materials. That massive, colossal flop didn't show any "advantage", it showed that a toddler was running the show, and when people just want cars he's off desperately trying to regain his Iron man allure, now that he's just a vile, garbage human being.
Another narrative that also fits the facts is that demand for their cars is so bad that they had to idle the X and S lines at that factory and they used Optimus as an excuse.
If demand was booming they'd set up a new facility to manufacture Optimus rather than dismantling a car factory
You should be asking Elon that.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me 10 times, shame on me
Wild people are still falling for Musk's fake products. I guess what they say is true, there is a sucker born every minute despite the evidence of the last twenty years. This will never ship.
Falcon 9 - 2010 - the cheapest, most successful, most reliable, most available rocket in history
Cargo Dragon - 2012 - first commercial resupply to ISS
Model S - 2012 - BEV that started the EV transition
Supercharger network - 2012 - first US wide charging network and still most reliable
Falcon 9 Booster Reuse - 2017
Falcon Heavy - 2018 - Super heavy partially reusable rocket
Model 3 - 2018 - best selling EV next 3 years
Crew Dragon - 2020 - only US NASA approved crew craft to LEO
Starlink - 2020 - only successful orbital ISP
NACS - 2022 - charging plug standard opened and then adopted by majority of US BEV manufacturers
Model Y - 2023 - First BEV to be world’s best selling car
Starship - 2024 - first catch of an orbital class booster without landing gear
Musk is highly accomplished and has also over-hyped his plans many times.
He’s delivered things years late that were also years ahead of others.
The actual work of SpaceX and Tesla are done by his employees, but the company wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for him.
He’s expressed some laudable goals around green tech and space exploration and also done things designed to enrich himself immensely.
Tesla’s done some cool things and also had problems.
SpaceX is awesome and Musk is also a terrible human being.
Dichotomies are uncomfortable but they’re everywhere.